It’s U.S. Open week as the USGA returns to one of its favorites, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. Always ranked near the top of the greatest courses lists, Shinnecock is hosting its fifth Open and has been tweaked to perfection by the maintenance crews under the the ever-watchful eyes of the USGA.
The 2004 U.S. Open was marred by a miscalculation by the USGA which allowed the course to get too dry and baked out and chaos ensued with water having to be sprayed on the seventh green between pairings. It was ugly and probably got USGA Director Mike Davis a promotion.
One of the unknown issues at Shinnecock in ’04 was never revealed until this week in Golfworld as Dave Shedloski chronicles one of Phil Mickelson’s six second place finishes. It seems that even at an ultra expensive, uber-exclusive, well heeled, USGA primed U.S. Open course there were rocks in the bunkers.
Yes, rocks in the bunkers that made the penalty for hitting the sand an even more damaging penalty. And of course, who felt the wrath of that situation? None other than New York’s adopted son and perennial (or so it seems) Open runner up, Phil Mickelson.
Shedloski spills the beans on Mickelson’s Sunday battle with a greenside bunker on seventeen where a stone was sitting right next to his ball.
Only Fred Funk, his playing partner in the final round of the 2004 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, has known Mickelson’s secret. He distinctly heard the clunky, discordant sound emanating from the front left bunker as Mickelson played his second shot at the par-3 17th hole. Instantly, he knew what had happened and solemnly watched the predictable result as Mickelson’s ball raced past the cup—above it, in fact—to a place on the oil-slick green where the left-hander easily could three-putt.
Which he did.
The wayward misadventure on the 72nd hole at Winged Foot Golf Club two years later remains the most indelible disappointment of Mickelson’s six near misses in the national championship. But the fate that befell him on the spuriously seducing shoulders of Shinnecock Hills in 2004 gives him the most nightmares.
There were rocks in the bunkers at Shinnecock, and when Mickelson arrived at his ball, he found one about a half-inch in diameter behind it, in the most perfect place to cause the game’s most proficient bunker player to hit the most imperfect shot at the most inopportune time. Having grappled to his first lead over Retief Goosen on the previous hole, Mickelson all of a sudden was trailing again after the double-bogey 5. It was too late to make up the deficit.
At two-under-par 278—with a still impressive final-round 71—he finished with the lowest aggregate score in history at a U.S. Open at Shinnecock only to watch Goosen better it a few minutes later by two strokes.
Of the ill-fated bunker shot, all Mickelson had to say that day was, “I really don’t know what to say.”
Funk simply couldn’t believe what his playing partner left unsaid.
“I saw him a few weeks later,” Funk recalled, “and I had read all of the post-round comments and the things he said after that. And not once did he mention the rock. I knew what had happened. The sound of the shot was weird, and the ball came out with no spin. So I asked him about it, and all he said to me was, ‘I never should have been in the bunker in the first place.’ ”
Phil, who is never shy about his sand skills knew he was in trouble.
“I tried to go behind the rock and underneath it, and it took all the spin off it. It had over-spin on it,” Mickelson said. “It shot past the hole in the one spot I couldn’t go, downhill, down wind. It was not a hard shot—basic uphill bunker shot into the wind. Couldn’t have been easier. But that one thing changed everything.”
Mickelson paused for effect. He was grinning, but shaking his head.
“All because of that fricking rock.”
Shedloski gives us an intimate look at what Phil’s troubles at Shinnecock and calls it Phil’s “biggest U.S. Open heartbreak.”
And Phil agrees. “That is the one I should have won more than any other, Winged Foot, I played terrible all week. But my short game had never been better in my career. I hit shots that week that were ridiculous. But I missed fairways all week. It wasn’t like all of a sudden I couldn’t hit a fairway [like on the final hole, where he made double bogey from the left rough to lose to Geoff Ogilvy]. And even then I probably should have won. I certainly could have won.
“But Shinnecock,” he added, “I played phenomenal that last day. Given the difficulty of the course, I would say that I have not played better in a U.S. Open in my life.”
Mickelson will need some of that 2004 magic, minus the rocks, this week if he wants to finally land his first U.S. Open championship. It will be fun to watch and let’s hope the USGA has spent some time on rock removal.
It’s an interesting piece on a secret that Phil had kept all these years and well worth clicking here for the entire piece.
Note: Shedloski lives in Columbus, Ohio and of course living there he has become a favorite of Jack Nicklaus. I actually witnessed the GOAT grabbing him in a headlock and giving him faux noogies. Seriously, I did…I could never make that up.
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